Sensors in vehicles pick up analog and digital measured values and forward them to further electronic components or controllers in the vehicle using suitable means. Said electronic components or controllers use the measurement data in order to influence the vehicle behavior and particularly to safeguard operation of the vehicle.
In some applications in the vehicle, a situation may arise in which an identical measured variable, hence a measured variable from a particular sensor, is needed not just by one but rather by a plurality of, for example two or three, different control units. These control units may be positioned at different locations in the vehicle, in particular, so that often it is not possible to firmly couple the ground connection of the plurality of control units sufficiently well. This means that it is often not simply possible to branch an analog sensor signal and forward it to the plurality of control units, since a ground offset between the control units could result in a possibly significant measurement error. The ground offset may at least mean that the measured values of the sensor signal differ.
Conventionally, an identical measured variable is split over a plurality of control units such that, as one alternative, a second sensor is provided for the same measured variable and is then read by a second controller or a second control unit directly. Alternatively, the measured value ascertained by one control unit can be forwarded to further control units using suitable communication interfaces. While the installation of a second sensor entails sometimes substantial additional costs and may also be able to be implemented only with difficulty on account of spatial circumstances, transmission of the measured value via a data bus usually brings about a not negligible signal delay on account of the transmission time required. Such a signal delay may—if a measured variable is used directly in a control loop—often be unacceptable.